Children’s Trust carried out inconsistent checks - CQC

A Children’s Trust facility in Surrey carried out “inconsistent” visual checks during overnight observations, a watchdog has said.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out an inspection at the residential children's home in Tadworth in February.

It found that some staff placed a hand on the child or young person’s chest during overnight observations, while others stood at the entrance of the door to observe the child.

The trust has been approached for comment.

The facility in Tadworth provides a home for children and young people with profound and multiple learning disabilities, as well as a rehabilitation service for children with brain injuries.

The trust was previously criticised by a coroner over the death of five-year-old Connor Wellsted at the facility in 2017.

In the recent report following the inspection, the CQC said when children and young people required overnight visual checks, the facilities care plans did not detail what the visual check should include.

While both methods used by staff followed the provider's observation policy, it led to “inconsistent visual checks”, the report said.

“We recommend the provider ensures that care plans have a detailed description of what sort of checks children and young people require overnight,” it added.

The report also found that pharmacy staff did not track FP10 prescriptions adequately and were therefore unable to identify if any were missing.

The report did however state that staff treated children, young people and their families with “compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, and took account of their individual needs”.

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